This is the journal for Miko no da's fanfiction. There will be male/male relationships, female/female relationships, male/female relationships, and some explicit stories. All explicit content will be marked as such. I am not making any money from the stories I write, and all characters are the property of their creators unless otherwise indicated.

As usual, the number of chapters is constantly shifting and changing on me. Writing with a rough outline is definitely easier than writing entirely by the seat of my pants, but I still end up with a lot of changes.

I still hate writing by hand. ;p

Does anyone know any good comms to post this to? It doesn't seem appropriate to put it up on ffvii_yaoi, my usual comm, since there's no yaoi in it.

Okay, so... I don't normally write fusions. The idea for this started as an RP years ago, and has stayed with me ever since. I'm having trouble writing much of anything at the moment, so I'm jumping on anything that I can get excited about. Much thanks to killiana for RPing this idea with me in the first place, and for giving me permission to make a fic out of it.

What this IS: a fic about FFVII characters, as if they had grown up on Spira rather than Gaia. It is a fusion, not a crossover. There are some obvious parallels, and some things that I've changed completely. This is still my pre-Crisis Core-release concept of these three characters, though I've included a few elements from CC as well. At the moment it's planned to be gen, (with some mention of and leaning towards canon het pairings, ie Zack/Aerith and Cloud/Tifa. Please do not bitch to me about the inclusion of these pairings. I like them, they're an integral part of the characterization, and there won't be anything blatant. Deal.) But we all know how fast things can turn yaoi in my stories. ;p

What this is NOT: a retelling of FFX events with the FFVII characters inserted in place of the originals. Obviously places and certain events are the same, but the plot is entirely constructed around the FFVII characters. There are no appearances of any FFX main characters. This is not one of my 'RP-style' stories; it is written as a true narrative and is only loosely related to the original RP we wrote.

I'm replaying FFX now to remind me of the settings and situations, but there may be errors in this story for things I haven't found again in the game. If you see anything blatantly wrong, please let me know!

Yes, you read the pairing right. At long last, here is the Reno/Zack blue_soaring asked for as a request fic in return for helping me finish my corset on the way to Y-con. *grins* I hope you like it, Blue. When are you guys coming over swimming again? Call us!

Zack finally has a canon last name! Yay, Crisis Core. It's going to take some getting used to, but the more I see it the more I like it. ^_^ Now if they would just give the Turks last names, I'd be ecstatic.

This is a bit different from my usual style, and I'm not entirely certain whether I like the way it came out or not. Since the story is set during the game and I had no interest in rewriting large sections of the plot just to get from one scene to the next, this is more of a sequence of scenes rather than a coherent story. If you haven't played the game you may find yourself a little confused by the sudden jumps, because I didn't bother to cover everything that happens in between.

Some small sections of dialogue were taken straight from 'OKvoicetalent's' game script on gamefaqs.com.

Title: Facing the TruthSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Gen, though Zack/Aerith is briefly mentioned and you can see Zack/Cloud, Cloud/Tifa and Cloud/Aerith if you squint hard enough.Word Count: 8024Rating: uh, PG-13, maybe?Warnings: MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR LARGE CHUNKS OF THE GAME PLOT. I don't usually bother warning for spoilers, because if you're reading fic for something you haven't seen the canon of you really just have to expect that you're going to be randomly spoiled. But we're talking huge spoilers for really important plot points in the game, so for once I'm giving the warning. Also angst, which you should be expecting if you've played the game anyway.

When your entire life is built on a lie, there's nothing quite as terrifying as confronting the truth.

This is - not a request fic, exactly, since I couldn't get her to actually GIVE me a request, but a reward fic for elict, in return for this awesome pic from 'Permission to Touch'. I have no idea if it's what she'd have wanted, but it was what decided to be written. I don't argue with the muses if I can avoid it. *sweatdrops*

The opening and ending lines are from 'I Will Carry You', by Clay Aiken (download is from yousendit). As far as I can tell, whoever wrote the song must have been a Zack/Cloud fan, because DAMN. The lyrics really fit them perfectly. It's a little eerie, actually. It's the first song on the playlist I use when writing Zack/Cloud stuff, always.

Also someone told me once that officially the voice Cloud hears in his head during the game is actually himself, his younger self - but I'd always believed it was Zack and that's the assumption that still drives me.

Title: I Will Carry YouSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Gen - Zack, Cloud & AerithRating: uh, PG-13, maybe? PG?Warnings: some angstLength: 9246Summary: Zack promised Cloud he would be there for him, and not even death can stop Zack from keeping a promise.

It's FINISHED! *cheers* And now I must run straight out the door to a party. I completely forgot that, it being New Year and all, I wouldn't HAVE most of today to write. *sweatdrops*

I was listening to the AC version of One Winged Angel the entire time I was writing this chapter. And to a Suzumura Kenichi (Zack's seyiuu) song called 'Sexy Boy' while writing the omake, because... well, you'll see. *grins*

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 9416 + 1183Total Length: 114,203Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Almost done! *cheers* I know some of you are disappointed that it's coming to an end, but I'm always happy to be able to actually finish a long story so I don't have it hanging over me, or have the threat that I might eventually lose interest and abandon it. I try not to ever do that, but I don't have a perfect record.

To avoid potential confusion: the woman Tifa mentions at the end of this chapter is the one in Rocket Town called 'Shera' in the NA release of FFVII. Her name (like so many things in FFVII) was a mistranslation of her intended name, 'Sierra'. Or so I have been assured by several people, and it does make sense.

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 6066Total Length: 104,604Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Still on track to finish as promised by the end of the year. This chapter actually didn't turn out to be as difficult to write as the last one, for some reason. Which is not to say it was easy.

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5436Total Length: 98,538Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Wow, this is an incredibly emotionally charged chapter, and the next one will be even worse. I'm finding it difficult to write these parts, not because it's not coming to me but just for the sheer emotional stress of it. That's not something I usually have a problem with. It's a damn good THING I only write happy endings, because this could potentially end in a real mess.

I need to make a new icon for the next parts, really... hell, I just need more FFVII icons, period.

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5022Total Length: 93,102Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Got a good haul this Christmas, though a large amount of it was treating ourselves from Christmas money and going a bit overboard. We are now very poor in money, but two game systems and several games richer than we were yesterday. We've been getting better about the impulse buying habits we have, MUCH better, but Christmas is always a dangerous time.

Oh, well. We'll just eat a lot of sandwiches in January and be grateful we don't have to pay taxes just yet. *sheepish*

Still hoping to finish this by the new year, despite the distraction of new game shinies. *determined*

Also, I JUST noticed that I apparently have 25 'messages' of some kind that show up on the main LJ page when I log in. Gods only know how long THOSE have been there. *sheepish*

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 4354Total Length: 88,080Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

If it's not one thing, it's another, I swear. *bemused* We lost power for a couple of days in the big windstorms that hit the west coast; which isn't too bad, considering there are people not far from where I live who've now been without power for a month and who are being evacuated. It's amazing just how much we rely on electricity, though. That's the longest I've been without power since I was stuck in the ice storm in Ontario and Quebec in early 1998.

And once again, another novel-length story. ;p I really do need to learn to write short again.

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5357Total Length: 83,726Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Okay, this didn't go quite the way I expected it to, though I probably should have known it was coming after the way they'd been setting things up. Ah well, it was fun to write this for a change. ^_^

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: NC-17 Warnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5486Total Length: 78,369Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Finally! I have been miserably sick with what we can only assume is the plague for the last... twelve days and counting. Been to the doctor, getting better, but I've barely been well enough to sit up on the couch, let alone sit at my computer and actually write. Once again I've fallen horribly behind at replying to comments, and I apologize. Every comment I get means a lot to me! You're the ones who inspire me to keep writing even when it seems tough.

Hopefully I will start to make some real progress on this story now. I know I've said that before, but maybe this time it'll actually happen. My goal is to have this finished before Christmas.

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 6030Total Length: 72,883Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Not entirely happy with this chapter, but if I don't move past it I'll NEVER finish the damn story. Next chapter should be better, I've got a better idea of what I want to do with it and where it needs to go. Hopefully this isn't as lame as it feels like it is to me. >.< Anyway, since I AM looking forward to the next couple of chapters, with luck they won't take anywhere near as long to finish writing. I do have a houseguest, though, and it's a friend I haven't seen in years and years, so I once again don't have as much time to write as I'd like. ;p

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 4047Total Length: 66,853Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Right, so I've given up on trying to get this finished by tomorrow. Not only is the chapter number still increasing, as usual, but the quality of the story dropped drastically when I started trying to force myself to do two chapters in a day. So I scrapped a fair bit of it, reworked the rest, and I'm just going to let this go at its own pace. I'd rather take a little longer and have it be the story it should be, rather than push it and ruin it.

Once I've got my word count for the day for NaNo, I'll poke at the chapters of this. I doubt it'll be much more than a week between chapters, still.

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5788Total Length: 62,806Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Yay, we finally made it back from Yaoi-con! We had a GREAT trip, despite ending up taking an extra day to get home. Met lots of awesome people, saw friends we hadn't seen in years (and missed one, too... Ara! Where did you vanish to, anyway?), got glomped a lot as Zack and Sephiroth, and generally had a blast. Pics will be up eventually; I really SUCK at con reports, so keep an eye on chichiri_no_da's journal for updates and pictures.

In the meantime, OMG, only five days left and still at least eight chapters to go. @_____@ I'll make it somehow. If it kills me!

Apologies to everyone who commented on the last chapter. I didn't have a chance to respond before we left for the con, and now I'm buckling down to finish the story, so they probably still won't get answered. I read all of them and appreciated them hugely, as usual! You all give me the inspiration I need to keep writing.

Also, apparently there really IS a Project G for Genesis. I had no idea. o.O Here I thought I was being all clever. Um, I'll have to change it. Or maybe just leave it and make people think I was referencing Dirge of Cerebus information, and find something else to use for my plot device. *sweatdrops*

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5013Total Length: 57,018Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

I have NO idea how I'm ever going to finish this before November, especially with so little time to work on it as Yaoi-con creeps up on me far too quickly. My NaNo is not going to be nearly as productive this year. >.<

On the other hand, this story has now passed NaNo length, and is still adding more chapters as I go. ;p

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 4795Total Length: 52,005Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

Tentative final number added for the chapters - I've got a VERY vague sort of outline, yay! Though the Cloud/Tifa aspect seems to be dropping away again. I have no idea what they're doing, honestly. I'm just the typist.

I've given up on promising faster updates. Once a week is still better than most people, so. >.< Y-con is coming up way too fast, and we've got FAR too much work still to do on our costumes. *sweatdrops*

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 4490Total Length: 47,210Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

So much for the hope that not working would mean getting the chapters out faster. Why is it that my desire to write seems inversely related to how much time I have available to do so? Seriously. >.< Damn perverse muses.

Though apparently what I needed to do to get them to talk to me again was to stay up until midnight and THEN start writing. Go figure. I'm going to be so tired tomorrow.

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 4498Total Length: 42,720Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

And AGAIN I left the first half of the chapter at work on Friday, and therefore couldn't finish it on Saturday. *grumbles*

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5736Total Length: 38,222Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

I meant to have this posted on the weekend, and then went and forgot to post the first 2k to myself from work on Friday. So I didn't have access to it, and I HATE rewriting. >.< I'm still not entirely happy with the first half of this one, but hopefully it's not too boring. ;p

Title: Too Good To Be TrueSeries: Final Fantasy VIIPairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/AerithRating: R, NC-17 in other chaptersWarnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.Chapter Length: 5222Total Length: 32,486Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?